October

Planted garlic today, Oct. 22.
Pulled up squash and pumpkin vines, nasturtiums vines, and zinnia, marigold, and pineapple sage stalks, which froze  over the weekend.

SEptember

Such a horrible year for the corn.  First it didn't germinate well.  That is probably what caused the problem you see in this picture.  If there's not a thick enough stand of corn, then the pollen can fly away, never landing on the corn cobs.  Therefore, not all of the eggs get fertilized, and thus not all of the kernels develop.  

 But the San Marzano tomatoes are beautiful!

 And the biggest white onions ever!

 Great Spaghetti Squash.  This is HALF of what grew from one plant!

 Kidney Beans, ready to be shelled.

August in the Garden

August

July in the Garden

Blackberries on the new bushes!

 Strawberry beds weeded, cut back, de-runnered, and woodchipped post-season.

 No apples this year!

 New asparagus plants are looking good!

 VOLES! Attacked the carrots last year.  This year started with the potatoes.  And now the beets!  Putting cayenne pepper in their burrows to discourage them.

 Success this year with eggplant!

 Sweet potatoes.  Hoping the below ground part is as great as the abundance of leaves.

 Hot peppers!

 The first early tomatoes!

 Some of the potato plants are dying already.  Maybe due to the potato bugs.  Will need to start digging some of the potatoes soon.

 San Marzano and Roma tomatoes still green, but plentiful!

 Green zucchini plant already died, and now the yellow zucchini looks bad.  Just too hot and dry this summer??  But we have harvested a lot of zucchinis already.

 Terrible cucumber year.  Again, wonder if it's the heat.  No pickles this year!

 Acorn squash and pumpkins doing well!

 Onions about ready to harvest!

 Beans!  Lots of beans!

 The herb garden looks great.

 First year to grow curly kale, my new favorite veggie for salads.

 Pulled up the pea pods when they were done.  Planted pole beans along the trellis, and shell beans along the outside of bed 1.

 End of July harvest day...potatoes, onions, corn (not very good), beans, tomatoes, beets, and herbs.

June in the gardne

Sweet potatoes, basil, and eggplants  June 12    Bed 13

 Squash and pumpkins 6/12

 Broccoli, celery, kale, and a trellis of pea pods
 6/12

 Pea pods...yum!

 Chamomile!

 Potatoes!  June 14

 Poor corn germination, but onions and garlic are doing great!

Jue 14---Lots of dill in the herb garden+++

 Everything in 4x4 growing well!

 A sweet potato from Whole Foods that had begun to sprout so I cut in half and put in shallow bowl of water.  Looks like they love each other!

 a week later...ready to put in garden.

 The SAGE garden down the hill from the, June 23..looking great.

 The mint garden.  That's me picking apple mint in back right quadrant.  Left back is chocolate mint.  Left front spearmint.  Right front peppermint.  Middle is filled with chamomile (not a mint).

Lots of ripe strawberries!  Some of them ending up in jam! These three jars went in the canner.

Used my sister-in-law's method of turning the jars upside down for these four jars, instead of putting in the canner.  Not sure if this will preserve them as well.  Might just keep them in the refrigerator.   But the color is so much prettier than those from the canner.

 Sundial class--fun!

 The first summer veggie skillet of the season!

 Yuck!  Potato bugs!  I think the plants got stressed in the dry weather, even though we tried to water a lot.  I picked at least 100, probably 200 or 300 off the plants today, knocking them off the leaves into a bottle of soapy water.  They ate  lot, but I think the plants will survive, and now the ground in very saturated from the rain.   June 11

 Finally got most of the weeds out of the new asparagus patch.  13 of the 15 new plants grew, but alas, something, I think asparagus beetle larva, attacked the fragile little sprouts, and I think some won't survive.  Getting a new bed started is hard, probably because we got a late start.  If we have to start over next year, we will get them in the ground in March instead of May!

 The best looking of the asparagus shoots.

May is great time to plant!

May 28
The first red strawberry, with lots more ready to ripen in the next few days and 2-3 weeks.

Bed 4: Onions from sets in foreground, then chard we grew in greenhouse, and garlic, planted in October, in background.

 Carrots loving their new home:

 The 4x4 box built last year by Kendall Heard in filled with tiny seedlings, some from the greenhouse, and some from seeds we sowed directly in the box.  A great demonstration of what can be grown in a small space.

 The annual photo of the chive flowers and the barn:

 Bean germination disappointingly spotty.  Will add more seeds in the empty places.  Corn germination also poor.  Probably due to the 90+ degree dry weather.

May 25  Bill planted eggplant and blackberries her bought at Sunrise.

 Rhubarb is looking great!  Seems to thrive in the new bed we gave it last year.

Tarragon (perennial) and dill (self seeding annual) are looking good at the back of  the herb garden.

Stevia with beautiful flowers:

 Beans are up!

 Bed 1:  Peas and lettuce, planted in March and April:

 The garden in late May:

 Drying apple mint in the dehydrator, for tea.  I've been using the garden tea herbs to supply the tea for the art center spring, Halloween, and Christmas teas, plus special SAGE dinners.  I'm trying to grow enough this year to give to the fellowcrafters to sell in the gift shop.  And I have a class to teach on herbal tea making in July.

Also drying chamomile flowers for teas.  Cut cheesecloth to line the dehydrator trays to keep the small chamomile flowers from falling through:

 Chamomile:

May 22

Cherry tree is loaded with fruit!  I think Bill's pruning paid off!

May 16
I planted beans today: kidney beans, yellow beans, and beananza and roma II green beans.

Bill put in stakes and stretched white cord to keep foot traffic off the beds.

May  14  It's been a busy planting week in the garden.    Planted 4 lemon verbena from Teds and 6 stevia from Teds and Sunrise in the herb garden.

 The potatoes are up and looking good.

 Planted tomatoes and peppers from our own greenhouse, again using the trellises and tomato cages for the tomatoes.  Also put in squash that we grew from seed, plus cucumber seedlings and seeds.

May 7, 2018:
Finished replanting the asparagus bed today.  The crowns I bought seemed dry and old when I unpacked them but after soaking in water for a few minutes, they looked so much better than the ones I saved from last fall's dig of the old patch.  But of course looks can be deceiving, so only time will tell.  I bought 6 Mary Washington (an old time variety)crowns  and 9 Jersey Giants crowns.  This is what the crowns looked like when I unpacked them.  Several banded together:

But after soaking and spreading out in the trenches I dug, they looked healthy and spiderlike:

I covered them and watered really well....and now we wait! 

(The 7 westmost crowns (furthest away int his photo) which are the ones I kept from last fall and planted last week, are only partially covered because I dug those trenches much deeper.)

 

The cherry tree is full of blossoms,

the apple trees have fewer, but perhaps a year of less fruit will be good for those little guys,

and the strawberries are blossoming...fruit will come soon!

The potatoes are up!   18 up out of 45 planted over a month ago!

The onions (foreground, planted in April) and garlic (planted in October)look great!

I planted 4 broccoli and 3 cabbage that we have been growing in the greenhouse in bed 2 (foreground), and the peas and lettuce in bed 1  are looking good!

Seeds I planted last week in the 4x4 box are sprouted:  radish, lettuce, beets, and spinach.

And I planted some basil and parsley we grew in the greenhouse, plus marigold and carrot seeds.